ICE (In Case of Emergency) is becoming a de facto standard for using a phone book (contacts) of a mobile communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, also referred to herein as user equipment (UE)) to store the name and number of a person who should be contacted in the case of an emergency.
As is presently known, on most mobile phones one simply need to select ‘Contacts’, then select ‘Add New Contact’, then enter the letters ‘ICE’ next to the name, followed by the telephone number of the named person. It is recommended that both daytime and evening numbers be entered where possible. In the event of an emergency then an emergency responder and/or hospital personnel can then easily determine a person to contact, assuming that the patient has their mobile phone with them.
However, there are several problems inherent in the use of ICE. For example, the user may store the ICE contact by duplicating an existing contact, resulting in two contacts with same number stored in the phonebook (contacts database) of the UE. In this case the UE may not display correct name information when originating/receiving calls and messages to and from that number. In addition, synchronization of the phonebook entries, and updating of the number, then needs to be performed twice. Further by example, the user may add the ICE designation directly to the original phonebook entry. However, in this case the phonebook entries are no longer in alphabetical order according to the actual names of the contacts. Further by example, some users may not be aware of the existence of the ICE concept and, as a result, the ICE number information is not stored in their phonebook.